Jennie Jones

Standing beneath the party bunting at the Town Hall in Swallow's Fall today is Jenny Schwartz, author of It's Love, Dude which is one of the books up for grabs in the Burra Burra Lane Birthday Blitz Giveaway."Jenny is a West Australian author who dreams of living by the sea. Sitting on the front veranda with her morning cuppa and watching whales swim past sounds like the perfect life."Enter the Giveaway for ten chances to win all these books!

Six snappy questions for Jenny

Contemporary, Coastal Romance

Jenny, what is It's Love Dude about? Zane Carlton is a World Champion surfer. Molly Georgiou is a shy, small-town girl. They have nothing in common except an instantaneous attraction and an impossible quest for a rare, endangered Australian marsupial. But Zane is determined to make it work, and invites Molly to take a step into his world. But Molly isn’t ready for the spotlights and attention — she loves her town, its quirks, its characters. Opposites attract, but can two such different people find both a woylie and forever?

What are your thoughts on the main characters? I picture Zane as the cool guy in high school who grows up to be even cooler. “Effortlessly alpha”, Molly calls him. And Molly! She’s a delight. She’s warm, devoted to her country town, beautiful (although she doesn’t think so) and shy. She’s as shy as the woylie they’re chasing. On a sidenote, woylies are so cute! It’s awful that they’re endangered.

We're woylies and we're way too cute! Click the photo to find out more about us.

What prompted you to write this story? The shy girl and the hot surfer dude just arrived in my brain and said “Tell our story!” I was intrigued. How could two such different people get together?

Go on! Share a paragraph or two from this story.Travelling the world sounded glamorous, but one competition blurred into the other. There were hangers-on and users everywhere. People started thinking stuff was important that he knew wasn’t. It was a life in a travelling bubble and he was sick of it. Crazy tired.He looked back at the woman.One more year, then he’d come back to Jardin Bay permanently.Once he was home, then he could think about chatting up a shy small-town girl who probably dreamed of forever. Probably had a boyfriend. Hell, for all he knew, she was dating some guy he went to high school with. Lucky bastard.She smiled suddenly.He saw the impact it had on the media: a moment of awe and then a surge forward. He looked for the man who’d won that smile.‘Granddad?’ You’ll love Zane’s granddad. The town of Jardin Bay has more than its fair share of quirky characters and Tom Carlton is a grumpy darling. ♥

Jenny, what do you most like about the writer’s life? Writing romance novels is an incredible experience. It’s about communicating, sharing, emotion; writer to reader, we’re in it together. To be able to talk about emotion, to strip characters of all the defences we put up in “real” life and show their scars, is an amazing privilige. I feel like I honour the courage of all of us “ordinary” people. Love is the biggest, riskiest adventure.

What is Jenny like in ‘real’ life? (Be honest, we’re all friends here - and don't forget, I know you!) I suspect I conform quite nicely to the classic idea of a writer: grey-haired (that started when I was sixteen – I still remember the maths class when a friend said “look! a white hair”), quiet, a people-watcher and a bookworm. Oh good grief! I’m a stereotype.

Jenny Schwartz - one nicely formed writer with bookworm tendencies and a huge ability to love and encourage all those around her. She's a gal you want to know.

Thank you so much Jenny for being part of the Burra Burra Lane Birthday Blitz Giveawayand coming along to the one year old birthday party for my debut novel, The House on Burra Burra Lane. I can't thank you enough.And on a side note - congratulations on your most recent release - Hero Duty. It's on my Kindle as I type ☺

Click on the book cover to find out more about Hero Duty

Readers - thanks for popping in. Don't forget to enter the giveaway ♥ And my never-ending thanks to Escape Publishing and Harlequin Australia who are just splendid publishers to be with ♥Jennie

Hi the 2 Jen's. Thanks for the nice little procrastination session. I checked out the Brush Tailed Bettong - you're right, very cute. I'd never heard of the Woylie before. And I checked out Lily Malone's review. Nice one. Now I've bought Hero Duty, YAY, It's Love Dude is already on my overflowing kindle, I'll get around to it one day.
Thanks ladies. Great blog.

Kendall, aren't the little critters cute? So awful to think they're endangered again -- the Perth zoo and other organisations stabilised their numbers or something like that, but they've dropped again. An unending effort, like so much conservation work.